A very interesting report is featured in the Birmingham Consumer Group’s Newsletter about midday eating out for under a fiver. There appears to be competition among cafes, restaurants, pubs and others offering cooked meals, to keep their main course prices below the psychologically important £5. One of the providers of the report is a vegetarian which makes it even more interesting for the 10% of readers who are also vegetarians [we are told that 10% of the population is vegetarian]
There are plenty of places where a good dish for under £5 can be had in the Broad Street area of the City Centre and the new Waterside development. One establishment, The Malt House on The Waterside, which has views of the now very smart canal area, offers Thai Vegetable Schnitzel showing how cosmopolitan (and mixed up) our food is becoming.
The reviewers say that Tesco’s restaurant at Five Ways is the place to go for hot food at low prices. It is used by a wide variety of people, local business folk, shoppers at the store and local residents who use it as their day centre. Lunch time treats include Steak in Ale, Sweet and Sour Chicken or Macaroni Cheese for £3.49. On special feast nights, Italian, Chinese or Indian meals are provided for £3.99 - eat as much as you like.
The White Swan in Harborne is the Mecca for meat eaters on a budget. Their offer of soup and a carvery for £4 is one of the best going, with four joints of meat or poultry and as many vegetables as your plate will hold. Vegetarians, however, have to pay £7 for their dishes.
The favourite restaurant was Michelle’s Restaurant Francais, in the High Street, Harborne where a three course meal, with a good choice of main courses and sweets only cost a little over £5. This was, undoubtedly the best in terms of variety, quality, service and value for money. However people in the area know this, so either go early or book a table. There were. of course, disappointments, where the fiver was not well spent.
In July the Birmingham Evening News published the startling news that the City Council had closed all but 17 of its 89 public toilets. This was because of vandalism which was costing more than £120,000 a year to repair. It is not unknown for Consumer Groups to campaign with success for the reopening or retention of public toilets. However, it seems that the Council sees another solution. This is to require shopping chains which wish to move into Birmingham to provide toilets accessible at all times to passers by, as well as shoppers,
This is a long term solution, if it comes at all. One hears now how Birmingham is an excellent place for an evening out with good city centre pubs, clubs and restaurants. Perhaps it is quite the wrong time to close toilets.
Wing Yip is a Chinese Supermarket and Birmingham Group visited it on December 2nd. It will be interesting to find out how they got on.
Several aspects of fair trading have been investigated by Guernsey Group. One is the provision of Ferry services to the UK mainland. The present provider has a monopoly and penalises Guernsey residents wishing to travel away by charging them a lot more than those travelling to Guernsey. The Group has for several years been campaigning for the provision of ferry services to be thrown open to competition by means of a tendering process. Suddenly, and to their surprise, the States of Guernsey has decided to take their advice. No doubt their advice was listened to, especially as three Group members are now elected representatives (Deputies), but the fact that the present ferry operators have had a very bad reliability record this year also helped.
Guernsey is also seeking a fair basis for petrol prices on the island. They are much higher than, for instance, the Isle of Man. They are also looking into the question of collision damage waivers in contracts for hire cars on Guernsey and Jersey. In some cases these are invalid, for instance if a collision happens in a hotel car park. Perhaps these are unfair contract terms.
The Plymouth Group is to host a meeting in February of interested parties, such as CABx and Social Services, who are concerned about rising debt among the less fortunate in the Plymouth and South Devon area.
You never know when a contact will turn out to be very useful. A survey carried out by Bath Group to find out about hospital services put them in contact with a reporter on the Bath Chronicle who has a weekly column on a Friday. Now Jenny Sutherland, the Editor of the Group’s Newsletter, contributes 500 words to this column every week, concentrating on consumers’ points of view.
The Oxford Consumer Group is asking its members for details of professionals who visit those who are, for whatever reason, tied to their homes. They are thinking of beauticians, hairdressers, chiropodists, dentists, opticians and others in the medical or alternative therapy field.
The details provided will be published in issues of The Oxford Consumer next year. One is used to the idea that professionals such as lawyers and accountants visit and of course doctors, but the idea of a visiting dentist is interesting.
The winter issue of The Oxford Consumer contains the second list of shops which deliver and it is surprisingly lengthy. One shop, Monaco at No 7 Old High Street, which sells clothes, will post any item that they have had to order for a customer
Numerous chemists deliver, none of them charge for this and none of them place a minimum value on the delivery. Boots only deliver prescriptions. Many other shops have a delivery service, some, like florists, you would expect, others, such as Oxford Design, a photocopying service, which will deliver free of charge in a ten mile radius, are less usual. Or is it that in most towns shops will deliver when asked, only we don't often ask and therefore don’t find out about this very useful service.
An interesting exercise was undertaken by Oxford Group when they learned that British Home Stores was to open a store in Oxford. They asked their members what features where most important to them and received more than sixty replies.
Naturally they told BHS about members views. Top of the list came "assistants able to advise, easily found and identifiable". Members also thought automatic doors, up and down escalators, a clear store guide at each entrance, seats and toilets very important. Another was locating children’s clothes on the ground floor or providing a lift for those with baby buggies.
The Exeter and District Consumer Group magazine eXchecker contains a warning for anyone seeking off street parking in a Council operated site in Exeter, Torbay, East Devon, Mid Devon or Teignbridge - Look Out!
The Group has checked out charges and reports that there is a bewildering array of prices. There is inconsistency about hours in the day, days of the week, or even seasons of the year when particular charges are levied. Make a mistake and a hefty penalty, typically £40 and in no way related to the unpaid or underpaid charge, will be slapped on you. Pay and Display is a sledge hammer of a system.
The centrefold of the magazine contains a table of charges, concessions, facilities (i.e. CCTV in some car parks to improve security) which will certainly help readers avoid the hefty penalty for overstaying their welcome.
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